In surgery in the axilla and chest areas, it is necessary to hold the arm of the patient elevated to an appropriate degree to give access to the excision areas. Heretofore, the practice has been to have the arm manually held elevated by a nurse or other assistant, a practice which is very tiring when the surgery takes an extended period of time.
The present device substitutes mechanical means for holding the arm in elevated position but provides also for an adjustment by which the arm can be held in any of several different positions appropriate to the surgery to be performed. It further holds the arm by means that are fixed relative to the operating table itself so that there is no relative movement between the holding means and the patient on the table. This avoids a problem with manual holding, of possible movement at an inopportune time on the part of the person holding the patient's arm. It also assures that the appropriate angle for the arm selected by the surgeon will be maintained constant throughout the surgery.
With the present device the arm may be positioned with the forearm fairly horizontal for superficial surgery, or more vertical for deeper work.
It will further be noted that the supporting means for the patient's arm as herein provided is out of the way of the surgeon during the surgery in the axillary or chest areas. This is the result of having the primary suspending means above the arm of the patient and connected to the operating table by a relatively narrow shepherd's crook type of support that is attached to the splint by suspending means.
Heretofore, splints have been made for example, for stabilizing broken bones but they would be largely impractical for the present purposes. For example, splints of the nature of U.S. Pat. No. 3,528,413 cannot well be used to hold an arm in a high position. Other devices such as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,256,880 are immobilizing splints that do not provide for any arm support for suspension. Some traction devices provide suspending means but do not provide for the holding in elevation by supporting the forearm and upper arm and particularly do not provide for the suspension of the arm in an adjustable manner that can modify the angle of the arm to the body, or the angle of the forearm to the upper arm.